Toby Moodys after the Shanghai race Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
He was pushed around in a wheelchair for heaven's sake, and still he had time to make a joke about the cheap hotel slippers he was wearing after the race. Class.
Heroic indeed, but as I said on the TV during Saturday's qualifying broadcast when he made some mistakes, was it correct that the FIM let him ride if he couldn't operate the bike properly?
In the end it didn't matter, but just let's think about how others may feel about potentially being skittled by an out-of-control Lorenzo because he can't properly control his Yamaha.
I asked the reigning World Champion if he thought it correct that someone should be allowed to ride a 148kg, 230bhp motorcycle with knackered ankles that left him unable to walk, potentially not be able to turn the bike and potentially crashing into fit and able riders out there - like the World Champion for example - who are minding their own business.
Remember Alex Hofmann's angst last year at Laguna when even a fit and able rider brought an end to his racing career?
What happened next took my breath away.
Stoner jumped at the casual question brusquely snapping that Lorenzo was perfectly alright. "Are you kidding me?" he said, lifting a lip. "He's perfectly OK. He qualified in fourth position, for crying out loud."
Fair point, I thought. Stoner's the rider, not me. He's seen Lorenzo out there on the race track, not me from my view, 100 feet up in the Shanghai commentary box with TV screens and a grand vista for comfort.
He had been in a mood and was now vexed with me, but all I did was ask a cool, calm and rational question. But what then arrived was pretty stunning.
"It's all an act, all this rolling around in the gravel trap for five minutes, y'know?" he snapped with the eyes fixed, the lip still turned. "They've got him in a wheelchair and they're pushing him around the paddock. It's all a joke ..."
I interrupted that I'd only asked a simple question to a MotoGP rider, stressing that I had (unfortunately) never ridden a MotoGP bike and so was asking someone far more experienced than me. A World Champion, no less.
At this point LAT photographer Martin Heath was taking photos and caught the moment with me pointing out the simplicity of the question. One question.
The 22-year-old continued to have a bit of a rant.
I am pretty hard to offend and will move on pretty quickly with things like this, but as my colleague Julian Ryder will attest, it bugged me for the rest of the weekend. But can you even begin to imagine what Jorge Lorenzo will think when he hears that 'It was all an act'?
After the race Stoner went on to quip to the BBC in parc ferme that "A podium this far off is just about not worth it."
I'm sure the man in fourth, Lorenzo with ankles throbbing like hell, would love the extra three points for third place. Especially after he discovered that he had even more injuries when returning home top Spain and undergoing further X-Rays in Barcelona - damaged ligaments and tendons adding to the already painful list.
And what about the thousands of hours work that the Ducati Corse team put in to preparing a 2007 Championship bike for him, never mind a Qatar 2008 race-winning bike?
Racers are a different breed, but Stoner is tightly wound, and even some insiders from within the team say he needs to cool off a little.
So where has this come from? By not being on course to win another ten races again this year? No. Did he not think that the Japanese factories may just catch up a little over the winter? Of course he factored that in. So where has it come from?
The rumours that Rossi is getting special treatment from Bridgestone are now inevitably swirling around the press office. For crying out loud, it was only a matter of time before that one started, eh?
I don't seem to remember anyone saying that about Ducati last year when they were en route to 11 victories when Stoner outrode the rest of them fair and square. I remind you he did win the title by 125 points - five race wins!
And what's wrong with someone outriding the next guy, just as Stoner himself brilliantly did last year?
In case some riders have forgotten, Rossi is a master of out-psyching people. Think back to his battles with Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau. Rossi even had mythical powers after Qatar 2004, when he was so peed off with Gibernau that he said after the race that the Spaniard would never win another GP. Over the next two and a bit years, he was right, psychologically crushing Gibernau at the very first race of the 2005 season with that Jerez last corner move. He beat him with one manoeuvre.
In 2008 though, the way Rossi may well have irked Stoner is by starting with Stoner's Ducati-spec tyres at the sole test the Yamaha did in November on Bridgestones. Here we are a few months later, and with just data from his own No.46 Yamaha and no others, Rossi and the crew have outfoxed the rest of them again.
The Doctor is back on form and taking the pills. Lorenzo has taken bucket worth of them over Shanghai weekend to get that incredible fourth place, while Stoner needs to take a chill pill.
-------------------------------------------------------
Stoner needs to @#$%& off